Restaurant Insider

This week's ripe with super-fun and mostly affordable eating and drinking dates, whether it involves watching chefs duke it out at the farmers market or sipping some swell suds at a neighborhood brewfest.

It’s getting so close, we can almost taste the etouffee.
Matthew Lewis – the spicy guy behind the Creole-riffic truck Where Ya At Matt – is on the verge of opening his new brick-and-mortar place in Fre-lingford.
Roux has been a work in progress since March, when a major renovation began of the old Buckaroo Tavern, just down the block from the ever-swamped Paseo.

Judging by the incredible feeding frenzy about Top Chef filming around the city, it's seems safe to say cooking reality shows have huge followings. There might even be a few viewers who long to be on the other side of the camera, and here's some encouraging news: Food Network's smash hit Chopped is casting here, looking for home cooks. Here's the skinny on how to apply.

Death to Kegs!
Something about drinking wine from a keg makes people want to do other off-kilter, Bacchanalian things, like glug it from mason jars, paper cups or directly from the spout, or, say, try to drink an entire keg of it in one sitting.

The construction covers are off and the doors open this morning to Skillet's new concept at the Armory at the Center House. The crown jewel of the new kingdom of food offerings in the completely redesigned space, the Counter, as they're calling it, is predominantly just that: a large, open kitchen enclosed by a long curved counter, which is flanked by extra patio seating.

The head honcho of restaurants in this town is, without a doubt, Tom Douglas. Take it from us, this guy is good. Hence his regular appearances in our pages, most notably on our Most Influential People of 2011 list, not to mention his claiming the number one spot on our inaugural Food Establishmentt list. Oh yeah, and most recently that little James Beard Award thing.

As Ken Burns recently illuminated for us, women were at the forefront of the two most significant developments in our country's history of drinking: the enactment of Prohibition, and then its repeal. And when ladies' thirst roared in with the '20s, it wasn't pink cosmos they were drinking.

Remember when everyone used to send emails with 15 forwards intact and you had to scroll to the very bottom of the page and then it ended up being some stupid joke that wasn't worth your time anyway?
Well, my dad still sends those sometimes (a lot). But this time? My two major life loves--dogs and food--come together. So call me a sucker; I thought it was cute enough to share. For your 3pm you-weren't-getting-anything-done-anyway break, I give you Dogs Eating at the Table.

For the November Best New Restaurants issue, in addition to ranking Seattle’s 10 Best New Restaurants, Food and Dining editor Allison Scheff and I wanted this issue to focus on emerging talents: the chefs, bartenders and other members of our dining and drink community who are poised to become the next big names.

This week I checked in on what's going on at The Sorrento this fall, as fall is such a perfect time to drop in to Pill Hill's iconic historic hotel. Fireplaces, books, fantastic brown liquor drinks and good old-fashioned hauntings -- what more does a cloud-plagued, sun-deprived Seattleite need?

Cake versus pie? Judging from the responses I've gotten since finding out that I would have the privilege of judging the epic rematch of last year's Cake vs. Pie competition last night, people are not wishy-washy on this matter. I've heard many a definitive statement to the effect of “Pie. Duh”; or “Clearly pie.” And truth be told, most folks who have weighed in to me have come out loud and clear on the side of Team Pie.